


I'll Fight For You

by Superbarryallen



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: F/F, Gladiator AU, Gladiator Lexa, Noblewoman Clarke, Roman Empire AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-06-08
Updated: 2016-06-12
Packaged: 2018-07-13 20:42:26
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 11,675
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7136336
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Superbarryallen/pseuds/Superbarryallen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>That's when the door to the pit opens, flooding the room with light, legionaries hold the door open standing on guard as a young woman enters the pit. Lexa's stomach flips at the sight of her, she was certain that she was Venus, or that she had been blessed by Venus herself, because her beauty knew no bounds. Her hair was golden, like the wheat fields found in the countryside of Rome, and her eyes were as blue as the clear oceans - they sparked, like the clear water that filtered into Rome through the beautifully constructed aqueducts - she was wearing a toga, clearly she was of some kind of social status.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this after I saw some fan art of Lexa as a gladiator. I don't know if I'll write anymore but I certainly had fun writing this! Also I ain't no historian so if this is historically incorrect then I apologise. I hope you enjoy and let me know what you think!

Lexa hated the rich ones. There was always one. Lexa never understood why someone would willingly want to become a gladiator, it was stupid, it was illogical, and those rich idiots, who paid for the best kind of training and their expert diets, were the worst kind of gladiators out there. 

 

Lexa was born and bred for fighting, she had wielded a sword before she had learnt to walk, hell, Lexa was adamant she used to be a hell of a kicker in her mother's womb. Lexa couldn't write, she couldn't read, she'd been a slave her entire life, sold to fight by her previous owner, and destined to die young. The only thing was that Lexa didn't die. She was still young, sure, but twenty two years was a fine age for what she did. She trained hard and she never fought and lost: she  _ survived _ . Maybe the Gods watched over her. 

 

Typically she wore a loincloth, covering the important parts of herself, no helmet was worn by female gladiators when pitted against another female but when Lexa fought men she was allowed a helmet, she carried a shield on one arm, armour on her unshielded arm and each of her legs. Gladiators were not permitted a chest plate unless the emperor wanted a bloody battle - he'd be kind enough to give them chest plates to prolong their battle and make it more entertaining. 

 

The rich ones though, they got the whole armour ordeal. Lexa had exposed flesh here and there while her opponent was wearing more armour and a tunic to cover his body even more - yet another reason why she hated rich men. 

 

Lexa twirls her sword lazily, almost effortlessly, she was sick of him dancing around her. The crowd was yelling insults clearly boring of their match. It was full today, thousands of people were in the stands, and even the emperor himself had come to watch the match. 

 

The man lunges forward surprising Lexa enough for him to actually hit her. He manages to slice across her stomach slightly before she steps back. Lexa hits her sword against her shield.  _ It's go time. _ She lunges forward with the ferocity that only a born gladiator could process and the man barely has enough time to block her attacks with his sword. The crowd erupt in cheers when they hear the clashing of swords and Lexa lets out a low growl. She twists her sword around his, causing his wrist to twist from the action, and Lexa uses that pain he clearly felt to whack the blade from his grasp. It falls in the sand with a satisfying thud and she throws  down her shield on the ground and replaces it with the blade. 

 

She was double armed now and her opponent had nothing. He backs off quickly, Lexa looked damn scary wielding two swords in her gladiator get up. She backs him into a corner, forcing him to do something, he swings at her face with his fist and Lexa slices his hand clean off. The crowd cheers yet again and Lexa watches as the man screams and lands on his knees. She rips his helmet off of his face and pauses at the look of absolute terror in his eyes. Lexa was known for being ruthless though. 

 

She grabs him by his hair and pulls him, dragging him by his hair and causing another scream to explode from his lips. She stops in front of the emperor, and dumps his body on the ground in the sand, delivering a hard kick to his ribs with a satisfying crack - like she said, she was pretty sure she was one hell of a kicker in her mother's womb. Even with his breastplate on it was clear that Lexa had done some kind of damage. 

 

She doesn't let him recover from that blow and she grabs him by his hair again bringing him to his knees and holding his head up. She positions her gladius at his neck and then looks up at the emperor expectantly. The crowd was going wild, waving their thumbs around and yelling " _ Death _ ." and " _ Kill him _ !" at Lexa. The man cradles his severed hand to his chest, his nose was bleeding, he was dirty and bruised and Lexa wanted to kill him, it would certainly save him a lot of torture, losing a hand was like losing an essential part of your body - especially for a warrior. 

 

Lexa stares hard at the emperor through her helmet and she sees the subtle shake of his head and his thumb was nowhere to be seen. Lexa grunts, clearly this guy was important to the emperor in some kind of way, usually he let Lexa kill every one of her opponents. She cracks him over the head again, knocking him out, and removes her helmet tossing it into the sand beside her. She tosses her swords along with it and the crowd cheers in celebration of their victor. They chant her name over and over again and Lexa gives the emperor one final stare before walking away and back to the pit. 

 

Her fellow gladiators cheer as she enters and Lexa grins as she revives claps on the back in congratulations. Despite the fact that they constantly fight each other, they were all brothers and sisters in here. Lexa tended to distance herself, becoming attached to a fellow gladiator was dangerous, and maybe stupid, but a few had managed to get under her skin: Octavia Blake one of those people. 

 

Lexa presses her hand to her wound and winces - he'd gotten her good deep enough to bleed but not as serious as it could have been. She removes her armour first, leaving her in only the loincloth that covered her lower half and her upper half of her body, she then slumps down against the hard wall and lets exhaustion seep into her bones. 

 

That's when the door to the pit opens, flooding the room with light, legionaries hold the door open standing on guard as a young woman enters the pit. Lexa's stomach flips at the sight of her, she was certain that she was Venus, or that she had been blessed by Venus herself, because her beauty knew no bounds. Her hair was golden, like the wheat fields found in the countryside of Rome, and her eyes were as blue as the clear oceans - they sparked, like the clear water that filtered into Rome through the beautifully constructed aqueducts - she was wearing a toga, clearly she was of some kind of social status. 

 

Her piercing blue eyes find Lexa's green ones and the beautiful woman proceeds towards the young gladiator silently. The other gladiators were back to their everyday business now, ignoring the presence of the woman, but Lexa was transfixed on this ethereal woman. Surely she was a goddess and, if she were not, surely she had some kind of godly blood - Lexa had heard of those demigods: brave fighters and strong willed and beautiful just like this woman. 

 

She stops in front of Lexa and Lexa watches silently as more soldiers place ingredients down beside the woman. "The emperor sent me to tend to your wound." She says and Lexa sits up suddenly feeling very exposed. "I'm the best healer in Rome." She assures as though Lexa wouldn't believe her if she hadn't. The beauty crouches in front of Lexa and examines the wound closely. "Hm." She hums examining the wound. "I'll need to clean it." She says and Lexa was still speechless. "I'd like to use vinegar but I can use wine if you would like? It's not as painful." She explains. Lexa almost wanted to scoff, had she not understood how disrespectful that would be she might have, instead she raises her eyebrows. 

 

"I'm sure I can handle it." Lexa replies and the blonde's lips quirk up at the corners in amusement. 

 

"She speaks." She muses soaking some linen cloth in what Lexa supposed was vinegar. She leaves them to soak as she uses a cloth and water to remove any derbies and dry blood from her wound. "That boy that you fought was the emperor's son." She continues and Lexa's eyes widen slightly. The blonde chuckles at Lexa's surprise and places her rag in the water that one of the soldiers had placed down before. "Don't worry, we all told him not to fight,  _ especially  _ you, but it was his own stubbornness that got his hand taken from him." 

 

"Should you not be helping him?" Lexa asks and the girl shakes her head. 

 

"I may be the finest healer in Rome but apparently women aren't as respected as our men counterparts." She smiles softly and Lexa nods in understanding. "Plus Thelonious believes my services were more suited for you." Lexa found that strange but by the sounds of things this mystery woman was close with the emperor and perhaps his son - she wonders how she knows them, if she's as well off as Lexa thinks she might be. "This is going to hurt." She warns bringing the soaked linen up to Lexa's wound. Lexa tenses in anticipation as the blonde places the cloth over her wound. 

 

Lexa lets out a grunt, and a rumble of swears, before saying "Son of hydra." which coaxes a giggle from the girl in front of her. Lexa could hear her wound sizzle as the vinegar did its work. 

 

"You're brave warrior." The healer compliments beginning to soak more linen in vinegar. She removes the linen in her wound after a moment and examines it once more. "A few stitches should hold this in place, then I'll wrap it in linen, again, soaked in vinegar, to be sure to avoid infection." She informs Lexa. 

 

"Galen would be jealous of your healing abilities." Lexa says her voice strained and hoarse. The blonde smiles brightly at her though she was frowning ever so slightly. She gestures a guard over and orders them to go fetch her some water. The blonde begins stitching the wound, and Lexa counts five in total, before she's wrapping another soaked linen bandage around the wound and smiling at her work. 

 

The soldier returns with water and hands it to Clarke who gives it to Lexa. Lexa sips quietly on her water as the blonde watches her. Lexa had fought many battles for many audiences but nothing has unnerved her like the blonde's blue eyes on her did. For the first time in a long time, Lexa was nervous. She felt a fluttering in her stomach that she hadn't felt in a really,  _ really _ , long time. "Clarke." The woman says with a small smirk. "My name is Clarke." She answers seeing the confused look on Lexa's face. 

 

"Alexandria." Lexa replies. "But most just call me Lexa." 

 

"A pretty name for a pretty face." She comments and Lexa feels herself blushing. The blonde hands her a tunic which Lexa takes gratefully. 

 

"So I'm curious, how did you end up here?" She asks and Lexa looks at her. She looked genuinely interested as though she actually wanted to know. 

 

"I was sold by my previous master." Lexa answers. "I had to train hard to survive." 

 

"Well the emperor is certainly find of you." Clarke says peaking Lexa's interest. "You have the most kills under your belt, you fight like no one I've ever seen." 

 

"I do what I have to do." Lexa replies and the blonde pauses staring at the tanned gladiator in front of her. It could be assumed that she had no family, making friends as a gladiator was rare, it was lonely life, and Clarke felt her heart swell at the thought of this beautiful,  _ beautiful _ , woman feeling lonely. She  _ was  _ beautiful, her green eyes burned with a kind of emotion that Clarke couldn't place, the woman was slim, which was good because that made her agile and nimble when she fought, her talents in welding a sword were exceptional and her smile was rare - that much Clarke could tell. 

 

"I suppose you do." Clarke nods as the soldiers begin taking the equipment, that Clarke had used to heal the warrior, away. She reaches up, in an almost bold gesture, and cups the woman's cheeks with her hands, staring into the woman's bright forest green eyes. "Perhaps we will see each other again." Clarke says running her thumb over the smooth skin of Lexa’s cheek. Her tone is suggestive and, if the rise of her eyebrows doesn't say it all, Lexa would take that as the blonde being interested. 

 

"Maybe we will." Lexa murmurs and she would kiss the healer were she not surrounded by her fellow gladiators, if the soldiers by the door were not waiting for Clarke, she would kiss her, until her lungs ached for air, if she had time. 

 

Clarke stands up and dusts herself down, readjusting her toga, before giving Lexa one final smile and walking out the door. Lexa breathes a sigh and makes a silent wish to the Gods that she would see the blonde again. 

 

**//**

 

The next time Lexa saw Clarke it was under the bright warm sun of Rome. She was training idly, by herself, swinging her sword and practicing her technique. It wasn't uncommon that sometimes people would watch the gladiators train, it was all they pretty much did to keep themselves busy, and staying in the pit all day sometimes made you go insane, but they were slaves after all - they were not permitted to leave the Coliseum without strict permission. 

 

A new arrival had come only the previous day, a young boy, who couldn't be older than thirteen, he had blonde hair and blue eyes and he reminded Lexa of Clarke. He was young, and wiry, but he was inexperienced and basically a child. Lexa had taken him under her wing, training him to become a fighter like herself, but now she was training herself while Aden relaxed in the pit. 

 

Lexa didn't notice Clarke until she heard an amused and soft voice ask her a question. "Do gladiators ever fall in love?" A voice asks to which Lexa immediately recognises. She turns around, her arm falling but still holding the sword in her palm. Lexa raises her eyebrows, throwing the sword down so that it stuck out of the ground - ready for when she may need it again. 

 

"That's like asking do humans fall in love." Lexa points out and the blonde smiles - her smile was as bright as the sun that even Apollo would be jealous. 

 

"Have  _ you  _ ever been in love?" She asks teasingly and Lexa looks around for a moment. She sighs and takes a step closer to Clarke. 

 

"Once." She admits and Clarke's eyebrows shoot up. "Her name was Costia." 

 

"Was?" Clarke asks hesitantly and Lexa nods her head. 

 

"When the barbarians attacked our village, she was killed, her head was cut off." Lexa explains. 

 

"That was before you were a gladiator?" Clarke asks and Lexa nods her head. 

 

"Back when I was just a slave and I didn't fight for my life everyday." Lexa says a little bitterly and Clarke bites her lip. 

 

"I'm sorry." Clarke apologises and Lexa shrugs. 

 

"I tried to fight back, I disobeyed my master’s orders, that's how I ended up here." Lexa says. "I tried to save my love and it got her killed in a more brutal way then what they were probably planning on doing to her in the first place." Clarke steps forward, so there was only a few inches between them, and Lexa takes a deep breath in. The blonde takes her hand and leads her towards one of the arches of the Coliseum hiding them from the sight of anyone. 

 

Lexa takes the hint and, as soon as she's out of sight, her hands are on Clarke's waist and she's kissing her softly on the lips. The blonde's hands tangle in the brunette's loose braids and Lexa presses herself closer to Clarke. The kiss was gentle, at first, as they each got acquainted to one another's lips. Clarke's back was against the stone wall of the Coliseum but she pushed back against Lexa with equal force. Lexa deepens the kiss, brushing her nose tentatively over the blonde's who lets out a small satisfied sigh, Clarke nips at Lexa's bottom lip smiling when she hears Lexa moan slightly at the gesture. 

 

Lexa wasn't sure how long they stayed like that, exploring one another's mouths, hands wandering here and there, until Clarke pulls away with a small chuckle. "Do you think if the other gladiators knew you kissed like that they'd be so scared of you?" Clarke asks her finger trailing down Lexa's chest. 

 

"Definitely." Lexa replies reconnecting their lips but Clarke stops her again. 

 

"You're a little eager." Clarke comments. "I'm sure you can wait for  _ that _ ." Clarke raises her eyebrows and Lexa nods kissing Clarke gently on the forehead. 

 

"Come see me fight  tomorrow ." Lexa says continuing her kisses down Clarke's temple to her cheek and to her jaw. Clarke leans back against the wall, for support, and nods her head sighing in content. 

 

"I wouldn't miss it for the world." She replies and Lexa's lips find their way to the blonde's neck. Clarke allows herself to get lost in the kiss for a moment, until she feels Lexa's teeth grazing over her skin, she hits Lexa lightly on the shoulder and the brunette smirks against her skin. She pulls back and gently brushes a strand of blonde hair from Clarke's face. "Don't lose." Clarke states and Lexa's eyes soften. She couldn't promise anything, the emperor had his way of surprising the gladiators, but she understood Clarke's worry, it was only natural, and even after knowing her for only a small amount of time Lexa felt the connection between them - she felt drawn to a Clarke in a way she hadn't felt drawn to someone in a long time. 

 

Lexa kisses her on the nose and offers her a tiny smile - that was the first time Clarke had seen her smile. "If you are there then I will try my very best." She replies. Shouting from inside the arena catches Lexa's attention - it was the guards calling them back in from their training. "Farewell Clarke." She says backing up slightly. She gives her one last lingering look before she jogs off back towards the arena. 

 

"Farewell Lexa." Clarke whispers back.

 

**//**

 

Exiting the pit and entering the arena sparked an excitement deep in Lexa like no other. The sun was high in the sky and burning with intensity. Today they had been given breastplates, leather, so not as strong as they could be but more armour than usual, telling Lexa that today was going to be a long fight. A group of gladiators had been chosen and Lexa had assumed that they would be fighting one another but, as each one exited the gates, she started to think that maybe that wasn't the case. 

 

They meet up in the middle, the crowd cheering the loudest when they see Lexa swirling her blades, she'd been allowed two blades today which was rare but Lexa fought better with two swords. Scattered around the arena were numerous weapons and trinkets that could be used for many different purposes. 

 

Lexa stops in the centre beside her fellow gladiators and lifts her helmet to look at them curiously. Armed in a tunic, leather breastplate, steel arm guards, shin guards, sandals and a helmet, meant something big was happening - not to mention the chains on the ground. "What's going on?" Lexa recognised that voice as Bellamy Blake, Octavia's brother, both of them had been sold into slavery and wound up fighting in the arena. 

 

"I heard it's a centurion fight." The girl beside her lifts her helmet but Lexa already knew who it was. 

 

"Octavia?" Lexa asks. This wasn't good. She didn't want to have to fight her friend, she certainly didn't want to kill her brother in front of her either. The other gladiators start murmuring, panicking, and Lexa clangs her swords together to silence them. 

 

Centurion fights were rare. Every so often the emperor decided he wanted to show off how experienced his army was and he'd organise a centurion fight in the arena. There was usually only two centurions, the most elite and experienced soldiers in the Roman army, they were accompanied by auxiliaries, non Roman citizens who fought for the Roman army but were not as trained in handling as many weapons as that of a legionary soldier. 

 

"What's the plan commander?" Octavia asks nudging her. Lexa had earned that nickname from the last centurion fight after she'd led the attack and saved the majority of the gladiators that fought that day. That's the way it was, the Roman army versus, arguably, the most fearsome warriors in the whole of the Roman Empire. 

 

Lexa doesn't even have a chance to answer when the sound of one of the gates being pulled up echos through the arena. All heads snap to the sound when the sound of hooves thundering on the sand catches their attention. Lexa's eyes deviate for a second and she sees her Clarke standing in the crowd her face a picture of horror. 

 

These battles tended to get bloody but Lexa trusted that, with teamwork, they could beat the centurions. "Now we fight." Lexa says turning to Octavia. She pulls her helmet from her face - she hated wearing that thing anyway - and looks around the Coliseum grounds. "Javelin, now." Lexa orders and Octavia takes off. "Engage the carriage." Lexa orders two other gladiators and they nod banging their swords against their shields. "When Octavia comes back here, you take that javelin, and you hit it right into that bastard's wheel, do you understand?" Lexa asks Bellamy and he nods his head not even questioning her. 

 

"What are you going to do?" He asks and Lexa smirks twirling her blades almost like a mad woman. 

 

"I'm going to keep the auxiliaries busy." She informs him. The centurions were rounding the arena, poking and throwing things at the gladiators that Lexa had told to attack the carriage, while the Blake siblings worked on finding the right angle of throwing the javelin to hit the carriage's wheel, that left Lexa with a whole group of auxiliaries just itching to kill the most favoured gladiator in Rome. 

 

She cuts the first one down with ease, he was far too cocky, he left all his defenses open and if you run towards Lexa then she will cut you down without hesitation. The crowd let out a pained sound as they watch the soldier land face down in the sand, blood spilling onto the sand and staining Lexa's shiny blade. Two more soldiers run up to her but they slow their step when they get in reaching distance being more defensive than the last man. 

 

Both swing at Lexa, and she uses both her blades to deflect both attacks, she elbows one harshly on the head, causing him to whimper and back off, which gives her time to focus on one soldier at a time. She slashes at the other soldier’s leg, watching as he bled from the wound, she then deflects his sword and hits him on the head, harshly, with the hilt of her other sword. The guy stumbles back and Lexa slashes his chest, twice, once with each blade, cutting through the leather armour there easily, she sweeps his feet out from under him and brings her blade down with a battle cry sealing his fate. 

 

"By the Gods," the other soldier murmurs. "please." He holds his hands up earning him boos from the crowd. "I have a family, I can't die, please, I don't want to die." He pleads. Lexa turns on him, her armour splashed in blood from her last victim, the crowd are cheering “ _ Kill! Kill! Kill! _ ” over and over again, somewhere else in the arena there's a crashing sound. 

 

"I'm sorry," Lexa says. "may you find peace in the afterlife." Lexa plunges her sword into his chest and then pulls it right back out again. The man stares at her, his eyes wide, blood spills from his mouth and his chest, and Lexa stares at him, emotionless, as he drops to his knees and then falls in the sand. The crowd cheers and Lexa looks at them to see a certain blonde who looked pale. 

 

" _ Lexa _ !" Lexa whirls when she hears her name being called. "We could really use your help over here!" That was Octavia - who was being quickly advanced on by a centurion. Lexa notices the gaping holes in the ground and her eyes widen when she sees the two new additions to the fight: two tigers - beautiful beats but were probably going to be the death of somebody. 

 

Lexa picks up a nearby net, left there undoubtedly for the gladiators to use in their battle, she abandons one of her swords, choosing to go for a shield instead. She sprints towards Octavia and tosses the netting so that it lands on the centurion. He flails around for a second and Bellamy tosses a piece of rope to Octavia and the two pull it tight so that the centurion walks into it and trips. 

 

Lexa leaps forward and kicks him backwards his head landing right in reach of one of the tigers. The centurion didn't even have a chance to know why he had been left because one second he's staring at the sky and the next there's teeth clamping down on his face. He lets out a bloodcurdling scream and even Lexa has to look away from the gore that presumes but if the crowds horrified sounds was anything to go by: it was not a pretty sight. 

 

The last centurion bangs his sword against his shield and more auxiliary soldiers flood out from the gate. Lexa looks at the carriage that had toppled over and that still had a spear protruding from between the wooden spirals of its wheel. The horses were running wild and Lexa made a reckless and, arguably, stupid decision to try and slow one down. She holds her hands out and tries to calm the horse. " _ Whoah, whoah, whoah. _ " Lexa says soothingly and the horse skids to a stop in front of her clearly skittish and anxious. Lexa runs her hand along its neck and purrs into its ear the tigers, no doubly, making it more nervous than it already was. "It's me and you bud." Lexa says climbing up onto the horse. She grabs its reins and pets its mane one last time before accepting a javelin from Bellamy as she rode past slowly. 

 

Bellamy throws one, hitting an auxiliary square in the chest, killing him instantly, while his sister occupied the centurion. Lexa rode her horse past the auxiliary soldiers, spearing one with her javelin as she does so. She then uses her blade to quickly cut down the rest with great speed and her advantage of being on a horse. 

 

" _ O _ !" Lexa hears Bellamy's shout of horror and she turns to face them. Without even thinking about it she rides full speed ahead at the centurion. He had his blade raised, ready to slash Octavia down, but he was definitely surprised when a horse went crashing into him. It only stuns him for a second but in that second Lexa's off her horse and kicking his helmet from his head. 

 

Lexa was covered in blood, her face was smothered in war paint and her green eyes were on fire as she sent her fist flying into his jaw. The centurion lands in a heap in the sand, a grin and a kind of laugh escaping him after he spits out blood and probably a tooth. Lexa stabs him in the foot, and then the other foot, and grabs him by his hair. No way anymore auxiliary soldiers were going to come now.  _ No way _ . 

 

Lexa had him right where she wanted him. Bellamy was tending to Octavia, making sure she was okay, while Lexa dragged the centurion through the centre of the two tigers - that were snapping at her but unable to reach her due to the chains that were attached to them - by the hair. She stops in front of the emperor, presenting the last centurion, on his knees, at at her mercy. "Do you really want to be like this?" The centurion groans feeling the cool metal of Lexa's blade meet his neck. "As the cold,  _ merciless _ , gladiator?" He asks and Lexa stares stoically ahead as the emperor steps forward leaning against the stone railing in front of him. 

 

The crowd wanted death, they were cheering for the centurion's death, and, really, if a centurion couldn't beat a gladiator what hope did he have of beating people in war? The emperor holds his thumb out in the middle and the crowd quiets, silently waiting for his decision, in one motion his thumb tilts down and Lexa pulls her blade back. "We are what we are." Lexa says before swinging her hand towards his neck with a loud battle cry and cutting it clean off.

 

**//**

Lexa was cleaning her blades when the doors to the pit opened. The gladiators go silent as Clarke enters and Lexa was seriously starting to wonder who her connections were. She gestures for Lexa to follow her and Lexa stands following her without a word. 

 

They stop outside, in the cool night air, and Clarke gestures to the guards. "Leave us." She orders. The guards hesitate, eyeing Lexa wearily, before doing as Clarke had instructed. Clarke waits until they disappear before pulling Lexa's face very close to her own. She inspects it, and the rest of Lexa's body, but finds no sign of any injuries on her - at least not serious ones. Lexa stays silent, waiting for Clarke to say something -  _ anything _ . "You're okay." She breathes and Lexa raises an eyebrow. 

 

"Did you doubt me?" Lexa asks. Clarke ignores her question and swallows thickly -  _ nervously _ . 

 

"That man, whom you killed, he begged you to spare him." Clarke says and Lexa frowns. "Couldn't you have?" Lexa didn't understand the questions, well, she did, she just couldn't understand why Clarke would ask that question. 

 

"No." Lexa answers emotionless. "I'm a gladiator Clarke, I fight, I kill and I repeat, it’s what o do." She reminds her. "If I had spared him the second I turned my back he would have drove his blade right through it." Lexa sounded so sure because she was - there was no way that soldier would have let her live. "I lost two gladiators today but three lived. Do you know how often gladiators win against centurions? Not often." 

 

"So you're okay with it? Just killing people?" Clarke asks staring into the girl's green eyes. Lexa didn't have an answer for her, she was hardened to killing now, it was just something she did, taking a life had been hard at first but when you do it on a daily basis it doesn't have that much of an effect on you anymore. Lexa shakes her head, feeling exasperated with the blonde. 

 

"You watch the games, are you okay with the killing?" Lexa asks.  _ She used to be. _ Clarke used to enjoy the games, even when her mother wouldn't let her watch she still managed to sneak off and watch them anyway, she loved watching them, there was just a kind of thrill you couldn't get anywhere else, but that was before she met Lexa, before she learned how softly she kissed, and before she learned that the brunette was more than just a killing machine, before she knew that gladiators were  _ people _ .

 

"That's different." Clarke protests.  _ Okay _ , so maybe she was being a hypocrite but she didn't care - she didn't want Lexa to just be numb, to have no feelings. Lexa's eyes narrow and Clarke knows that she sees right through her. "The emperor is my friend, his son is my best friend, and my mother is high ranking in the government." Clarke confesses and Lexa's eyes widen. The brunette drops to her knees and Clarke sighs pulling Lexa back up before she can say what Clarke was sure she was about to say. "None of that please." She says dismissively. She may be a noblewoman but she'd rather not have Lexa kneeling at her feet -  _ not like that anyway. _ "I'm telling you this because I want you to understand that I care about you Lexa, I started caring about you the second I patched up your wound." 

 

"You... you shouldn't... I'm a  _ gladiator  _ Clarke, this will never end well." Lexa stumbles over her words still stunned by the blonde's confession of her social status. 

 

"Humour me." Clarke says with a smile and Lexa frowns before the familiar feeling of Clarke's lips envelope her own in a searing kiss. Lexa groans, from the feeling, and lets her hands land on Clarke's waist, pulling her close and deepening the kiss instinctively. Clarke brings hand up to snake around Lexa's neck while her other one rests lightly on her cheek. There had been this spark from when they had first met, Lexa had put it down to want, or lust, but now she was thinking that maybe it was something more - maybe she felt something deeper than just want for the blonde haired beauty. 

 

The kiss lasts several minutes, and Lexa begins to wonder if Clarke's guards were ever going to return, when the blonde pulls away. She holds up a piece of paper and Lexa looks at it curiously - it's awfully embarrassing that Lexa couldn't read. She stares at the paper and nods but Clarke instantly picks up that there's a problem. "You can read right?" She asks and Lexa sighs shaking her head. "Oh." Clarke falls silent at that revelation. 

 

"I was never taught how to... or how to write." Lexa admits and Clarke found that almost sad - Lexa seemed like the type of girl who would really enjoy literature. 

 

"Well maybe I can teach you?" Clarke suggests wiggling her eyebrows. Lexa raises her eyebrows in confusion and Clarke smirks. She clears her throat and begins reading out the letter. "I, Emperor Jaha, allow Alexandria Woods, Rome's finest gladiator, to leave the pit with Clarke Griffin whenever she so desires the gladiator. She is permitted to always be with Clarke Griffin during this time whenever she is absent from the pit." Lexa frowns at her in disbelief and Clarke grins shoving the letter back to wherever she had had it before. 

 

"You bought me?" Lexa asks suspiciously. 

 

"Not exactly, Jaha told me that I couldn't take you out of the games completely, because you're the best of the best, but I could take you out of the pit whenever." She explains and Lexa still didn't believe what she was hearing. 

 

"How exactly did you get this to work?" Lexa asks. 

 

"He owed me some favours." Clarke shrugs and takes Lexa's hand. "Now come on, I have something other than a dark pit filled with people to show you." Clarke tugs on her arm and Lexa follows after her in shock. She was a gladiator, who was allowed to roam freely, so long as she was with Clarke? That was insane, that was ridiculous, that couldn't be true, and yet here was, strolling down the street, clutching Clarke Griffin’s hand. Lexa was looking forward to whatever happened in the future and Clarke made a vow to try and save Lexa from the life of a gladiator.

  
  



	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "Aren't you charming?" Clarke asks lightly and Lexa presses her lips to the blonde's neck. 
> 
> "Beauty should be appreciated." Lexa replies. "When I first laid eyes on you I thought Apollo had blessed you with the sun in your hair and a radiant smile to brighten even the pit, I thought Venus had blessed you with beauty and grace beyond belief, I thought that the gods had sent you, put the sky in your eyes, as well as the stars, and blessed your lips to be as soft as a feather." Lexa continues her arms embracing Clarke from behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Turns out I couldn't resist writing more. Gladiator!Lexa is too much for me to give up man. Anywho, I'm not sure how long this fic will be, hence why I haven't set the amount of chapters, but you can bet that there will be more - Clarke has a plan for Lexa after all ;) I hope you enjoy this chapter!

"Good Aden." Lexa praises pushing him back with her blade. "Again." She orders. The young warrior slashes at her with great speed and accuracy, especially for such a young boy, but Lexa was far more experienced: she deflected Aden's attacks easily, plus this was sparring, easy going training that probably wouldn't result in a severed limb - _probably_.

 

Things had started to shift in Lexa's life: she was a gladiator, who was now learning to read and write and who also got to leave the pit so long as she was accompanied by Clarke - which really wasn't bad company at all. The other gladiators were jealous - _of course they were_ \- until Lexa brought back wine one night and they'd loved her for an entire week. The only problem was that this week two gladiators were going to be pitted against each other and Lexa had it on good authority that she would be one of those gladiators.

 

Lexa was so caught up in her thoughts that she let her guard slip for a moment and Aden takes that opportunity to lunge forward and cut Lexa's arm slightly. Lexa jolts out of her thoughts at the sudden burst of pain and stares down at her arm for a moment before staring at Aden. He looked incredibly proud, puffing his chest out, with a grin across his face, and Lexa felt proud of him herself, sure, he had attacked her when she had been distracted but, he saw her weakness and used it against her.

 

She tosses her sword down in the sand, the wound on her arm was only minor, a scratch, if that, and she steps towards Aden. "Is that how you want to play it?" Lexa asks and Aden drops his sword backing up from his mentor with his hands raised. Lexa pounces on him, and tackles him to the ground playfully, she then proceeds to tickle the young boy at his sides causing him to laugh uncontrollably. Lexa grins down at him as she continues tickling him. "Did you really think you could best me that easily?" She teases. Other training gladiators were watching the scene with a sad fondness as Lexa teases the young boy.

 

They had become close, Lexa trained Aden and even looked after him ensuring he was well fed and well rested. Aden was young, younger than what Lexa had been when she had woken up chained to a wall, a sold slave who had had to fight and survive to even become the gladiator she was now. Aden had fought and, by some miracle, he had been spared by the emperor to serve Rome as a gladiator and Lexa wasn't sure if that was any better. Sometimes she thinks maybe it would have been easier to die in the slave fights than to get here: fighting for your life practically every day.

 

Lexa had dreams still, she'd been fighting to become a Rudiarius - a free gladiator who had fulfilled their duties. Lexa had won plenty of fights but, apparently, none of them had been distinguishing enough. The only way a gladiator could retire was when the emperor decided they had proved their right to be free - which basically meant killed as many people as they could. Lexa had heard that the past emperor had allowed gladiators to retire after their fifth game but that rule was no longer true leaving Lexa to have to fight over and over again without an end in sight. How many fights could someone win? Eventually Lexa's luck would run out.

 

Aden wriggles out of Lexa's grasp, laughing hysterically, and Lexa grins at him ready to pounce back on him when a voice stops her. "I see you're training hard." Lexa spins around to see Clarke with her eyebrows raised and a wide smile on her face.

 

"Mea domina." Lexa bows her head slightly and Aden follows her example. Clarke chuckles and shakes her head at the brunette.

 

"Aden, it's good to see you, you're growing everyday." Clarke smiles brightly at Aden - in that way that only Clarke can smile - and Lexa finds her heart rate quickening at the sight.

 

"Lexa says I'll be a warrior in no time." He says proudly and Lexa ruffles his hair causing him to push her away playfully. Clarke watches the incredibly endearing scene with a fond smile on her face but it quickly fades when she remembers why she had come to see Lexa.

 

"Why don't you go train with Bellamy?" Lexa suggests. Aden scrunches his nose up at that suggestion and Lexa rolls her eyes. "Fine, go train with Octavia, _but_ if she kills you I won't be held responsible." Lexa says and Aden smiles wide before running off to go find Octavia. Lexa gives Clarke a look, walking towards her sword that she had left on the ground. "Is there something I can do for you my lady?" Lexa asks raising her eyebrows.

 

"It's about your fight tomorrow." Clarke confesses. "Lexa, you can't fight." Lexa frowns pulling her sword from the sand before slipping it into her scabbard. Clarke looks around before leading Lexa over to one of the arches of the Coliseum, where they had kissed before, and then turns to give Lexa a worried look. "Emperor Thelonious has requested Roan to fight you." Lexa's frown deepens. _That was worrying_. Roan was a retired gladiator, and for some years now, he was one of the best, admittedly, he might even be just that little bit better than Lexa. He’d earned his freedom, so why would he ever want to return to the arena? "Lexa, you can't fight Roan, he'll kill you." Lexa scoffs at that accusation and plays with the hilt of her sword that was attached to her side.

 

"I can't exactly opt out of a fight Clarke." Lexa points out. "I have to fight, otherwise I _definitely_ die." Clarke sighs knowing that that was true but she still wished she could take Lexa out of the arena - especially if Roan was going to be in that very same arena. "Plus, I'm sure I can beat him." Lexa shrugs. She'd heard stories, sure, but she'd never actually seen Roan fight - _he couldn't be that good, could he?_

 

"Lexa, you've never seen Roan fight." Clarke says in disbelief. "In one of his fights he killed five gladiators before the first one touched the ground, he's killed more men and women than any other gladiator, he's _merciless,_ he'll _kill_ you!" Clarke was panicking, Lexa could see that, she had to do something to calm her, so she steps closer and places a hand affectionately on her cheek.

 

"Clarke," Lexa says lowly and Clarke shivers at the way that Lexa says her name. "I'm a strong fighter, I can beat Roan."

 

"Lex-" Clarke tries.

 

" _Shh_ ." Lexa soothes and, if Clarke had been any other noblewoman other than, well, _Clarke,_ then Lexa would've probably had her head cut off for having spoken over someone of a higher class than herself. Clarke falls silent, her blue eyes narrowing at Lexa who continues to stroke her cheek gently. Lexa was good, Clarke knew that, but Roan was older, stronger, faster and, ultimately, more experienced. Lexa didn't stand a chance yet Clarke knew that Lexa couldn't _not_ fight either.

 

Shouting from within the the arena catches the pair's attention and Lexa's head snaps to the side to see the gladiators returning to the pit. She turns her attention back to Clarke and kisses her gently on the forehead. "I will fight Clarke." She says leaving no room for disagreement - it's not like Clarke could disagree anyway.

 

"Fine," Clarke sighs. "there's something I have to tell you. I need your help."

 

"Tell me." Lexa says without hesitation - if Clarke needed help then Lexa was at her service. Clarke smiles and kisses Lexa softly on the cheek.

 

"After you win." Clarke states and Lexa smiles slightly warming Clarke's heart.

 

"Of course mea domina." Lexa bows her head and Clarke swats at her head playfully to get her to stop. Lexa chuckles at the blonde who grabs her sword from her sheath. Clarke points the blade at Lexa and the brunette holds her hands up in mock surrender.

 

"Silence." Clarke says holding her arm straight and staring Lexa in the eyes.

 

"A noblewoman, such as yourself, should not hold such an offence weapon my lady." Lexa says sliding her hand delicately down the blade and to Clarke's hand. Clarke allows Lexa to take back her sword without protest - it was actually frowned upon for a noblewoman, such as herself, to train with a weapon unless she was apart of the guard. "Hm." Lexa doesn't stop at the sword, her hand runs along Clarke's arm and she steps behind her, wrapping her arms around Clarke and moving her blonde hair to one side to bury her head in the crook of Clarke's neck. "Beautiful." Lexa whispers and Clarke smiles shivering at the sound of Lexa's voice in her ear.

 

"Aren't you charming?" Clarke asks lightly and Lexa presses her lips to the blonde's neck.

 

"Beauty should be appreciated." Lexa replies. "When I first laid eyes on you I thought Apollo had blessed you with the sun in your hair and a radiant smile to brighten even the pit, I thought Venus had blessed you with beauty and grace beyond belief, I thought that the gods had sent you, put the sky in your eyes, as well as the stars, and blessed your lips to be as soft as a feather." Lexa continues her arms embracing Clarke from behind. Clarke arches into Lexa, enjoying being close to the brunette, and enjoying the shudder that ran down her spine from her words. "I thought that you must have half God blood in your veins to be so beautiful and I thought that _I_ had been blessed to have even been allowed to look at you." Clarke turns around and pushes Lexa against the wall narrowing her eyes.

 

"Why does this sound like a goodbye?" Clarke asks and Lexa grins - _she actually grins_ \- and shakes her head.

 

"Accept that I find you beautiful and nothing else." Lexa says and Clarke shakes her head in disbelief. She pauses for a moment, staring hard at the brunette, and Lexa stays in place, Clarke gripping the front of her tunic in her fist, while she allows her eyes to wander down the blonde's body.

 

"We're equals." Clarke states and Lexa's eyebrows shoot up in surprise and her eyes lock with Clarke's. "I don't care that you're a slave, a gladiator, _whatever_ , you and me, we’re the same, no titles, just two women... who happen to enjoy each other's company."

 

"I happen to enjoy your company very much." Lexa replies with a smirk. Clarke rolls her eyes and releases Lexa's tunic from her grip.

 

"Don't talk to me until you win your fight." Clarke says turning her back on Lexa.

 

"For you I'd do anything." Lexa chimes kissing Clarke on the cheek quickly before jogging back out to the arena. Clarke sighs, she had a bad feeling in her gut about that fight, she needed Lexa for more than just being her lover. _She needed her._   


**//**

 

Lexa was strapping on her shin guard in the pit. Today she was wearing a tunic, shin guards, sandals, armour on one arm, while the other carried a shield, and she was armed with her silver gladius. She had been allowed a helmet but refused, she felt much better with her hair flowing free in its tangled braids, and, plus, it was just less sweatier and easier to breathe without the helmet. Octavia comes over to her while she pulls her shield onto her arm. "Good luck commander." Octavia says. "After this you'll probably be out of here." She comments and Lexa looks at her.

 

"I will find a way to get you out of here." Lexa vows and Octavia shakes her head.

 

"No need, I'll earn my way out." She says and Lexa chuckles shaking her head. Octavia was one of the most skilled, fearless, vicious, fighters Lexa knew - and Lexa knew herself. "Hey," Octavia stands upright when she sees that Lexa was about to reach for her sword. "be careful, okay?"

 

"You sound like Clarke." Lexa muses and Octavia gives her a hard stare.

 

"You're far too cocky Lexa, Roan is a bad dude." The shorter brunette stresses.

 

"Yes, okay." Lexa admits. "I'll be careful." Lexa was careful to not make any promises, because you never really knew, but Octavia was being serious and that was not as common as one might think. Octavia holds her hand out and Lexa grips her forearm tightly shaking it in a strong warrior way.

 

"May the gods be with you." Octavia murmurs and Lexa ducks her head slightly. Outside the gate the sound of the crowd cheering and hollering could be heard - clearly they were impatient to begin the battle. Lexa releases Octavia's arm and reaches for her blade carrying it as she steps towards the gate. She throws one more glance over her shoulder to see Aden staring at her, wide eyed, Bellamy beside him, while Octavia stood off to one side. Lexa hears a shout announcing that Roan had exited his gate and Lexa takes a deep breath steadying her nerves - despite fighting many battles, the nerves still somehow managed to creep up on Lexa. The crowd erupts into cheers as Roan does his bigoting to warm them up. The bets on this fight would be high and, with both of them being well known gladiators within Rome, it was likely a huge turnout. The gate begins rising and Lexa takes one final deep breath before walking forward.

 

The first thing she notices, weirdly enough, is the sound of the sand crunching underneath her sandals, then there's a shout, someone announcing her name, and the crowd erupts into ear blistering cheers - even louder than what it had been for Roan. The man was wearing similar clothing to that of Lexa, brandished in scars and wearing your typical gladiator armour. He looked leaner, and more muscular than what people had described him to be, his hair was quite long and absent of a helmet, he had no shield, he was armed with a sword alone, and Lexa tosses her own shield down in the sand. Lexa was right about the event being popular, she'd never seen the Coliseum so packed to the brim, it sparked an adrenaline rush and Lexa's heart began to beat out of her chest.

 

Lexa scans the crowd for Clarke, for blue eyes, or blonde hair, and she finds her in the last place she expected to see her. Sitting beside the emperor, who was on his throne, was his son, Lexa knew him as Wells and her blade had taken away his hand, he sat impossibly straight beside his father. On the other side of the emperor was a woman with brown hair and brown eyes though she bore a slight resemblance to a certain blonde who was sitting beside the woman. Lexa's eyes connect with Clarke's and the blonde smiles reassuringly though Lexa could see her nerves.

 

Over the past few weeks Lexa had been Clarke's secret pet, in a way, she was teaching Lexa how to read and write, they'd have long debates about certain topics and Lexa learned that Clarke preferred to draw than write, she said it expressed how she felt more than words ever could, and Lexa found that there was something really beautiful in that and, _okay_ , maybe they'd had a few kisses here and there but nothing beyond that.

 

Lexa watches as Roan begins to circle, twirling his blade and eyeing Lexa up. Lexa's eyes leave Clarke's and the blonde lets out a breath of worry. She looks at her mother who was too busy watching the fight to see the plead in her eyes to stop it. She turns back to see Lexa copying Roan's moves.

 

He was taunting her and, under the thrum of the crowd’s excitement, Lexa was finding it hard not to react - someone was going to make the first move but it was _not_ going to be herself. Finally, it's Roan who lunges forward first but Lexa easily sidesteps and moves out of his way slashing her sword across his back as she does so. Roan groans in pain and stays still for a moment, staring up at the emperor's box, before whirling around. Lexa doesn't let him recover and goes at him, attacking him one after another, but Roan blocks each one with a loud clash each time.

 

The pair charge at the same time and meet in the middle, both pressing against one another, no one wanting to back down. "You're too weak." He grunts applying more pressure. Lexa hated to admit it but he wasn't _technically_ wrong. He was a man after all, she'd need to use her agility and skill to counteract Roan's brute strength. Roan was stronger so it was no surprise really when he started pushing Lexa down, causing her to stumble and grit her teeth in protest, before glancing at the blade. _Fuck it._ Lexa grabs hold of the blade feeling it pierce her skin and warm blood to pool on her palm and run down her arm. The crowd cry out, seeing the blood drip onto the sand, and, although Lexa had cut Roan's back, he hadn't spilt any blood on the sand, making Lexa's the first blood to be shed.

 

She ignores the stabbing pain and pushes him back, with more leverage this time, and he stumbles backwards for a moment and the crowd cheer seeing that Lexa had regained some of her advantage. He doesn't give her much chance to recover and he's swinging at her once again to which Lexa blocks each attack. She was holding her own, the fight wasn't going as well as she might have hoped but, at least she wasn't dead - _yet_.

 

He sweeps her feet out from under her and Lexa lands face up in the sand before scrambling to her knees in a second but Roan's already there. He drives his blade down and Lexa barely has enough time to block it with her own. Roan delivers a hard punch to Lexa's jaw, he then kicks her in the ribs and she falls to the ground winded. Her blade slips out of her hand at some point and she lies in the sand as Roan delivers blow after blow with his foot. Lexa was pretty sure she had about five broken ribs by the time that he was through with kicking her but no way was she giving up that easily. Roan's biggest weakness was his pride, his hubris, so, as he turns to the crowd, patting his chest, Lexa pulls herself up and grabs her blade. She attacks him from the back, slamming the hilt of her sword on his head, he stumbles and Lexa uses that moment to slash at him some more opening up wounds and causing him to bleed. Roan scrambles for his own sword and picks it up in time to deflect Lexa's lunge. He slashes at Lexa, cutting her in multiple places and making her more bloody than she already was. "How about we make this interesting?" He asks with a smirk. Lexa raises her eyebrows. _Interesting?_ Her whole right side burned every time she took a breath, if that wasn't interesting enough for herself then what exactly did Roan have planned? He throws his blade down and gestures for Lexa to do the same. She hesitates, knowing this could easily be a trap, but eventually follows his example.

 

Clarke tenses, seeing Lexa throw down her weapon so willingly, hand to hand combat wasn't uncommon, more so with the slave fights, but Clarke didn't like the glisten in Roan's eye - she didn't trust him.

 

Lexa charges at him, and tackles him by the waist, falling on top of him in the sand. Roan grunts as Lexa's hands find his neck and she begins strangling him. He lets out a strangled cry and Lexa presses her hands harder into his throat gritting her teeth with the power she exerted. Then she feels a fist come up and punch her right in her burning ribs and Lexa's falling off of him with a loud cry. Roan rolls on top of Lexa and begins hitting Lexa over and over again until her face is bloody and Lexa's vision was beginning to blacken. Roan picks her up, lifting her up off the ground, and throws her back down again. She lands in the sand with a thud and Lexa closes her eyes gripping at the sand. "Get knocked down, get back up." She mutters. Lexa springs to her feet, renewed with determination, but when she turns to face Roan he's behind her and he's driving his sword through her side.

 

Lexa's eyes widen, her breath hitches, the crowd around her fall silent in utter shock. Lexa looks down at the sword embedded in her flesh and lets out a breathy moan of pain before looking up to meet Roan's dark eyes. _He lied. He tricked her. He said no weapons and now she's been stabbed. Where was his code? Gladiators were supposed to have a code but, then again, he isn't a gladiator anymore._ Lexa falls backwards, slipping off the blade and landing on her back, in the sand, in a daze. She knew what was coming next, she'd imagined it would've come a lot sooner than now, but that didn't make her any more ready for it.

 

Roan throws his blade down and grabs Lexa by the back of her tunic. He begins dragging her across the sand and Lexa stares straight ahead unable to truly understand what was happening. She had blood everywhere, her nose, her mouth, numerous cuts, the huge wound in her side, her broken ribs, the sand, this was how and when Lexa died.

 

Roan stops walking and brings Lexa to her knees. She feels the cool metal of silver touch the skin on her neck and she keeps her head bowed to ground not wanting to know when she would die. The crowd burst out into yelling and screaming and Lexa's ears stop ringing long enough for her to make out the steady stream of “ _Live, Live, Live._ " that they were chanting.

 

Clarke's eyes were wide with horror, seeing Lexa bloody and beaten was not a welcomed sight and she felt her stomach churn at seeing such a thing. "Thelonious." Clarke says and the emperor turns his head to look at her - her mother also looks at her strangely curious as to what Clarke had to say. "Let her live." Clarke says and the emperor frowns.

 

"Let her live?" He asks. "She took my son's hand." Clarke internally groans, _what a stupid excuse as to execute someone._

 

"She has worth Jaha." Clarke protests and Jaha frowns.

 

"I know you seem to have a soft spot for the gladiator, Clarke, but look at her, she's injured and won't be able to fight for weeks." He points out. Clarke chances a look at Lexa to see her bloody form and the blonde grimaces from just that brief look.

 

"Give her to me." Clarke decides and then she pulls out the card that she had been hoping to avoid. "Ever since my father's _accident_ ," Clarke hisses the word but Jaha doesn't seem to notice. "I've been so lonely. I know that you and my father were close and he wouldn't want me to be lonely… _especially_ if _you_ could solve it." That shut Jaha up. Clarke felt almost sick at herself for even mentioning her father around Jaha, he wasn't worthy, it was his fault that her father had been killed.

 

"Father," Wells says from the other side of Jaha. "grant Clarke this wish, it does not matter that she took my hand, that was my fault, _really_." Wells says and Clarke smiles at him and he returns it. Jaha lets out a huff, and Clarke almost thought he looked like a pouting child, before he stood up from his throne and came front and centre of attention.

 

Lexa was wondering what the hell was taking so long. She was also wondering what Clarke was doing - if she was looking away or staring straight ahead. She hears the roaring of the crowd and waits for death, expects it even, but, instead, the blade is taken away from Lexa's neck and she's dropped in the sand. Unable to summon the strength to move, two members of the guard come out and grab Lexa from under the shoulders, dragging her across the sand and back to gods know where. Lexa's eyes flutter closed, she wasn't sure what was happening, or why she wasn't dead, but she supposed she should be relieved.

 

Lexa's taken to some kind of room, and dumped on a couch covered in furs, and left there in silence. Lexa shifts, sitting back against the arm of the couch, she presses her hand to her side and groans. Not a moment later the doors open and Clarke enters followed by her soldiers who lay what she needed to heal Lexa on the ground. The guards are gone almost a second later leaving them alone.

 

Clarke drops beside Lexa and cuts away the material of her tunic immediately - the wound where Roan's blade had entered Lexa was her highest priority. Lexa closes her eyes,feeling exhausted and tired, and then an intense stinging to her side causes her eyes to snap open, she lets out a sharp breath, sparking pain in her chest, and she jolts up and right back down again when she feels her chest burn in protest. Lexa turns her head to the side to see the wound on her side stuffed with lint, soaked in vinegar, with a sponge over the top where Clarke's hands pressed down on the wound in the hopes of stopping the bleeding. Lexa grunts and Clarke looks up to meet Lexa's green eyes that were dimmer than usual. Clarke's blue eyes were sparkling either with worry or sadness - Lexa couldn't really tell.

 

Clarke stays like that, applying pressure to the wound, until she deemed the bleeding to be less of a problem. Luckily, Roan hadn't hit any major arteries, that Clarke could see, or any major organs that would cause Lexa to internally bleed - _she was lucky._ "I'm sorry." Lexa mutters and Clarke frowns cleaning the wound with water to remove the excess blood and debris. "I thought I could beat him." Lexa continues her head rolling to one side. Clarke cups Lexa's chin and forces the brunette to open her eyes.

 

"You're going to be okay, you have the best healer in Rome, remember?" Clarke smiles and Lexa nods her head. "I need you to stay with me, I'll give you something for the pain later."

 

"Pain is good." Lexa replies as Clarke readies a needle to stitch the wound. "Means I'm alive?"

 

"Yes Lexa, you're alive." Clarke replies with a fond smile. The brunette was obviously a little delirious from the pain she felt and the beating she had just taken. Clarke cleans the wound one last time before wrapping it in a linen bandage. She then cleans the small wounds on Lexa's body that she had sustained and Clarke's hands halt at her chest. She runs her hands over the brunette's sides stopping when she hears Lexa's sharp intake of breath. She does it again feeling the slim gladiator’s ribs underneath her fingers. "Looks like you have a few fractured ribs." Clarke comments. "I can't do anything about that other than give you pain relief." Lexa shakes her head and Clarke removes her hands from beneath her tunic. "I don't think any have broken off which is good." Clarke says grabbing a cloth that was wet.

 

"Hurts to breathe." Lexa murmurs as Clarke starts dabbing at her face, cleaning the blood away that was there along with her war paint and dirt. Lexa's skin was feverish but, with the pain she was so obviously in, that wasn't unusual so Clarke wasn't too worried.

 

"You need to breathe properly." Clarke orders and Lexa nods her head in understanding. "Would this be a bad time to tell you that I bought you?" Clarke asks quietly. Lexa hums in question closing her eyes as the young healer tended to her wounds. "Jaha has formally retired your services in the arena. I bought you to work for me."

 

"Work for you?" Lexa asks curiously raising her eyebrow.

 

"Bodyguard maybe? I haven't figured out the specifics yet." Clarke admits. "I just couldn't watch you die, I couldn't sit there and see Roan cut your head off." Lexa smiles softly her hands finding Clarke's waist to pull her closer to her.

 

"You saved me." Lexa muses.

 

"Can you walk?" Clarke asks. "You're to be presented your rudis to symbolise your freedom." Clarke explains and Lexa nods. Clarke helps her stand, with a lot of difficulty, Lexa groaning and grunting as she does so, she leans heavily against Clarke, leaning into her side, burying her head into her neck. Clarke raises her eyebrows when Lexa rounds on her falling into her chest in an embrace. Clarke holds her tightly feeling her heart break, it's not everyday a gladiator looks for comfort in a hug, so Clarke just held her. After a long moment, Lexa pulls back from the embrace and Clarke helps support her as they walk out of the room and back towards the arena.   


**//**

 

Lexa pushes off of Clarke when they near the entrance to the arena. Clarke had given Lexa a new tunic, since her last one had been torn, for her to look presentable. "Thelonious will present you with your sword." Clarke informs her. "Just, _try_ to be grateful, and bow to your emperor, I understand you might feel a little agitated by that idea... gods know I do." Lexa raises an eyebrow at that comment but Clarke just shakes her head dismissively. Lexa straightens herself up, putting on a brave face, she was nervous about what the crowd's reaction to her was going to be. She'd been beaten by Roan, sure, Lexa had won many fights, and killed more people than she could count on her two hands, but she'd been bested, it was strange that she was being awarded her freedom, and that meant the crowd, and the people of Rome, might just hate her for it. "Don't worry," Clarke says as though she can read Lexa's mind. "they scream for death after every fight Lexa and yet they screamed for _you_ to _live_." Clarke reassures. "The people of Rome love you." She adds.

 

The doors open and harsh sunlight floods into the room. Lexa straightens her back, so it's almost painful, puffs her chest out slightly, wincing from the strain it put on her ribs, and lifts her chin slightly. Clarke stares in amazement, seeing Lexa go from a broken girl to a gladiator just like that was a peculiar sight - although the tough gladiator act wasn't that bad to look at. Lexa steps forward onto the sand ignoring the stab of pain every time she took another step forward. Standing in the centre of the arena was Thelonious with his Royal guards, the crowd explode into cheers and Lexa uses their energy to fuel her steps. Clarke watches after her, this was Lexa's moment and all the blonde could do was stand and watch.

 

Lexa strides up to the emperor, and stares him hard in the eyes for a long second, before dropping to her knee. She bows her head respectfully and the crowd clap, whistle and cheer at the sight. Emperor Jaha gestures for the rudis from one of the nearby guards. "Alexandria," Jaha's voice booms through the arena silencing the crowd. "you have proved your worth as a young warrior of Rome." Lexa lifts her head slightly to look up at her emperor. Lexa should feel honoured, she should feel gratitude, she should feel _something,_ but all she can think about was what exactly Jaha had done to Clarke. It was his fault that Lexa had even had to become a gladiator, _why should she thank the man for releasing her when he put her in there in the first place?_ Plus, had Clarke not been there then, it was likely he would have had Lexa executed by Roan's hand. "You may rise." He says. Lexa pushes herself up, her body screaming in protest, her side especially, she was in pain but her face didn't let that show - not even in the slightest. "I present to you, your rudis. This blade is to symbolise your service to Rome and your freedom." He explains. "Should you choose to come back to the arena, at any time, you may leave and live like a Roman citizen because of this rudis." He continues and Lexa listens to him. He holds the sword out to Lexa and the brunette hesitates before taking the wooden blade from him. It wasn't much, just your everyday wooden sword, it was relatively light, it couldn't do much damage, really, but if it meant that Lexa wouldn't have to sleep in the pit anymore then it was Lexa's new favourite thing.

 

The crowd breaks out into cheers again and Lexa looks up to stare at them. They really did love her. Lexa hadn't believed what Clarke had said but she supposed being a fearless gladiator, and bringing some of the bloodiest battles for five years, would earn her at least a little recognition. Lexa bows again to the emperor and he turns his back on Lexa first, a custom that she knew she couldn't break, despite her being awarded her freedom, she was still lower class and turning your back on the emperor was cause for execution. Lexa turns, once he's out of sight, and she stumbles her way back to Clarke - almost collapsing on her way. Clarke catches her when she reaches the doors, they're closed and the sound of the crowd dies dramatically. Clarke holds her supportively and Lexa gives her a thankful look. "Let's get you home." Clarke says. _Home_. Lexa's never really had one of those.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is so historically incorrect but it's an AU for a reason so just roll with it. I tried but Ancient Rome had a lot of rules and a lot of rulers and shit changed a lot so ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯ I hope you enjoyed and drop me a comment if you wish telling me what you thought :)

**Author's Note:**

> Sorry for any spelling and/or grammar mistakes!


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